Pages

Monday, March 20, 2017

Shay and I rescheduled our Workin' It Wednesday this month for today. I hope you join us! If you blogged it earlier in the month, please link-up so we can check out your ideas. :)

We're chatting about how we work at balancing our home and work life.

No matter if you work-from-home or you work full time outside of the home, we all have things we have to balance at home. You might be reading and thinking you are pretty good at this, but there's always room for improvement. I'm hoping you guys comment with your best ideas. Because I can't WAIT to read them! ;)

I'm going to share a bit of my day. These are the things I "do". I'm a mom who tries to attend all the school parties, field trips, and volunteer when I can. I'm also keeping the house in order, blogging over here five days a week, and I'm a travel agent for Mix and Match Travel. For the most part, I have my work pretty broken down in my head. If I stick to that plan, it goes great. But best laid plans...right?

*Early Morning-I work on my blog before kiddos are up. The house is quiet and I get my bloggin' ON. If I have extra time, I usually get a little travel work done as well. It's a little more difficult to do travel stuff at 5:45 a.m. because no one wants me calling them to chat at this hour. It helps me stay focused on blogging.

*When Bowen is at home with me, we typically do something until right after lunch time...maybe gym and lunch or park play date. Then he plays or rests while I get lots of travel work done. This is the time I call Mix and Match Travel clients, work on vacations, set up phone calls...that kind of thing.

*One of my New Year's Resolutions was to not be working after pick-up. Let me tell you some times that is just impossible. But for the most part, I try to do laundry and any household cleaning when the kiddos are home. This way I can be interacting with them and I'm not shut up in my office.

I have to segment my day and work on things only during those hours or I tend to spend too much time on one thing and others get neglected. With working from home, I can always find blog posts I could be working on or laundry that needs to be done so I mentally try to shut things down at certain times. Doing this has really helped me with time management. It helps me keep a good BALANCE between work/home life.

Another thing that REALLY helps me with working from home and managing my time is still getting up early on the weekends to get things done before the kids are up. Sometimes this is hard because I'm tired! But if I do this, then my week just runs smoother. I don't have any catching up to do...it's just nice!

What about YOU? Do you work full-time outside the home? Do you work from home? Please share any and all ideas that have helped you. I know we'd all love to read.

These are the topics we'll be covering the rest of the year...we hope you'll join us!

I have a massive to-do list that helps keep me focused, and then as a teacher, my summer days have to be scheduled so we maximize our fun time without letting the house go to the pits! Thanks for hosting!

I sometimes try to do the early wake up on the weekends too, but this weekend it wasn't happening. I didn't wake up until 8:30 on Saturday. I can't think of the last time I slept that late, but it was GLORIOUS!!!!!!!! Good tips today!

I'm a teacher, so although I work full time my schedule is the same as my kids'. A game changer for me this year is ordering my groceries online and picking them up. What a huge time saver! And I do a much better job sticking to my list and not making impulse purchases. Another tip is have the kids help! My kids (15,12,9) have daily chores and extra chores on the weekend. Making sure a home runs smoothly is everyone's job :)

The struggle is real!! I am still trying to find balance, which is so hard with an Etsy shop that is always open, deadlines that have to be met and making sure I answer messages quickly. It's so hard and I get overwhelmed all the time. But I'm loving all the tips I'm reading from everyone and even though I am a total night owl, I'm thinking of testing the waters and switching it up a bit. I may try to wake up at the butt crack of dawn like yall and see if that helps or if I'm just a zombie by 3pm. ;) That could be an interesting blog post. haha

PS-I totally blogged today for What's Up Wednesday and not Workin' It Wednesday! I even heard you and Shay talking about the Workin' It post at the game yesterday and STILL did it! Ugh. I am such a dork. lol. I had to modify my post to make it work for a random Monday instead. Maybe if I had more BALANCE in my life, I wouldn't be overwhelmed, tired and distracted. #goals

I agree getting up early helps so much! I work outside of the home, and I leave for work at 5am, so there is no getting up earlier then that. I do like getting up early on the weekends, but sometimes that's hard, but you're right, getting stuff done on the blog over the weekend for the week really helps out to not be scrambling after the kids go down, so I can actually spend time with the hubby after bedtime :)

I work full time outside the home and often have to travel for work. I have a hubby, 4 year old and apparently a new puppy (my husband just text me a photo.........). I hired a cleaning lady yesterday. That is how I plan on balancing life :)